Leadership Messages

Message from Harry Raduege, Chief Executive Officer, to all NCOIC Members and AdvisorsDecember 2, 2015

My primary focus since becoming NCOIC chief executive officer in March has been to highlight the value of interoperability with government and business leaders. These discussions have taken on an even greater urgency in the last month, as we witnessed increased threats to the safety and security of our world.

Interoperability within and across domains is not just a concept, it is vital to the survival of our nation, our allies and all organizations. There are several factors that affect the successful implementation of interoperable systems: laws/regulations, culture and business considerations, as well as the technology itself. Interoperability is achievable, if – and only if – industry and government work together to address these challenges.

It is imperative that businesses balance their need for market share with the need for achieving real interoperability across industries and national borders. Unfortunately, many attempts at interoperability are not ideal. Today, most standards and solutions aimed at ensuring compatible network platforms, products, and services are not effective. In nearly every case, the offerings are narrow in scope, related to a specific product, impractical, inconsistent, and quickly obsolete. Industry also often considers interoperability as an “add-on” rather than an essential feature like quality. The results speak for themselves: products that are unable to keep up with emerging needs and that must be modified at every turn, costing money and time that could be spent saving precious lives.

Governments and non-government organizations can no longer afford to wait, and they can’t build interoperable environments alone. Collaboration and transparency are difficult hurdles in the private sector, where businesses get locked into their individual technical offerings. An association like NCOIC is the catalyst to help get the job done.

I’ve also explained to those leaders the strengths of our Consortium and the importance of working with us to achieve interoperability. NCOIC is uniquely positioned to enable governments to establish interoperability criteria that is technical enough to have mission value, while we give industry a place to capture the interoperability concepts that will allow innovation and provide value to business.

Since 2004, NCOIC has studied and developed conceptual interoperable solutions. We offer a legal and open forum in which to create interoperability roadmaps, acquisition strategies, and test and evaluation capabilities. The Consortium can reach across boundaries, create partnerships, lead the exchange of ideas, and help implement solutions for the long term.

NCOIC was formed by industry to make interoperability a reality – it is critical that we succeed. I look forward to working with you in 2016 and bringing an increasing number of organizations to the table to realize that vision. Our global interdependence and quality of life rest upon it.